Rotary fluid pressure device



Dec. 13, 1966 M HERMARY 3,291,062

ROTARY FLUID PRESSURE DEVICE Filed Feb. 21, 1966 2 SheeoS-Sheel l 4 his lll VII/.017:2

Dec. 13, 1966 M. HERMARY ROTARY FLUID PRESSURE DEVICE 2 sheets-shea z Filed Feb. 2l, 1966 MAUR/CE were m fy H7 TOR/VE y United States Patent O 3,291,062 ROTARY FLUID PRESSURE DEVICE Maurice Hermary, 519-602 W. Hastings St., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Filed Feb. 21, 1966, Ser. No. 529,043 3 Claims. (Cl. 10S- 130) This invention relates to rotary fluid pressure pumps and/ or motors.

In general, rotary pumps and/ or motors comprise some form of casing with a rotor operating therein and use some form of radially operating valves or sliding vanes which maintain lluid tight contact with the interior of the casing.

In some instances the rotors in devices of this sort have been mounted eccentrically to the axis of the casing or have been formed elliptical in shape but there always remains the difficulty of the sliding valves or vanes which rapidly lose their adjustment under sustained operation.

My invention is designed to overcome diiculties now found in rotary iluid pressure devices. In my device there are no sliding or reciprocating valves or other pumping members. Further, the pumping members are in continuous rotary motion to provide a device that will operate with a minimum interruption in fluid flow.

The essence of my invention is the provision in an epicyclic gear train of a split ring gear that is mounted in the gear train eccentric to the common axis of the train and in uid tight contact with the major members of the epicyclic gear train to create oppositely disposed chambers that will alternately increase and decrease as the device is in operation.

In drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment: FIG. 1 is an end view of one embodiment of my invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken at line 2 2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken at the line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view taken at line 4 4 of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 5 through 15 illustrate my invention through various stages of its operation.

As seen in FIG. 1 in the drawings, I utilize an epicyclic gear train consisting of a housing formed from amain body portion and a face plate 15A secured to the body by bolts 15B. The body 15 is internally peripherally toothed as indicated at 16 and is formed with a central co-axial pinion gear 17 which is toothed externally as indicated at 18. A planetary gear 19 has external teeth 20 which are in mesh contact with the internal teeth 16 on the casing 15 and with the external teeth 18 on the pinion 17.

This provides a conventional epicyclic gear train wherein rotation of the pinion gear 17 in the direction of the arrow 21 or in a clockwise direction would rotate the planetary gear 19 in the opposite or anti-clockwise direction and if the casing 15 were held stationary the planetary gear 19 would travel around the pinion gear in continuous mesh with the teeth 18 on the pinion gear and the teeth 16 of the casing.

To form the epicyclic gear train into a lluid pump and/or motor, I insert in the chamber 23 a split ring gear indicated generally at 22. The split ring gear 22 is mounted concentrically on the plate B and has a portion removed therefrom to provide the spaced apart ends 24 and 25. The plate B is mounted eccentrically on the shaft 28A and the split ring gear is positioned in the housing so that the pinion gear 19 will lie between the ends 24 and 25.

The split ring gear is formed with external teeth 26 and internal teeth 27 and is mounted within the chamber so that the internal teeth 27 will be in fluid tight mesh 3,291,952 Patented Dec. 13, 1966 "ice contact with the teeth 18 of the pinion gear while the external teeth 26 will be in fluid tight mesh contact with the teeth 16 on the casing 15.

The number of teeth on the gears in the epicyclic gear train and on the split ring gear 22 are proportioned so that the orbital path traced by the planetary gear 19 will be in the same direction as the split ring gear 22 and at the same speed so that the planetary gear 19 will move in the space between the ends 24 and 25 of the split ring gear 22.

The coaxial centre of the housing 15 and the pinion gear 17 is indicated at 28 while the path traced by the eccentric mounting 28A of the plate B is indicated at 29. It will be noted that the mounting 28A traces a circle coaxially around the centre 2S of the pinion gear.

The gear teeth of the casing 15, the pinion gear 17, the planetary gear 19 and the internal and external teeth 26 and 27 of the split ring gear 22 must all be of the same pitch and intermeshing so that a fluid seal will be made whenever inter-meshing occurs. Of course, the gear teeth can be spur, spiral or herringbone as desired.

It will be obvious that the eccentric rolling action of the plate B and the split ring gear 22 will create varying volumes between the pinion gear 17, the split ring gear 22 and the case 15 and that the varying volumes will be on either side of the planetary gear 19. It is therefore only necessary to place ports on either side of the planetary gear to allow lluid to enter or leave the variable volume chambers and enable the device to become either a pump or motor capable of rotating in either direction.

The inlet is in the form of a V-shaped groove A cut into the surface of the plate B at its periphery (see FIGS. 1 and 4) to provide a passage between the inlet chambers on one side of the planetary gear 19 and the annular chamber C between the periphery of the plate B and the wall D of the cover plate 15A (see FIG. 4). An inlet port 30 leads through the cover 15A to the chamber C.

Outlet from the mechanism includes the elongated groove F through the plate B. The groove is in cornmunication with the outlet chambers on the opposite side of the gear 19, (see FIGS. 1 and 2) and with the annular groove G formed in the plate 15A (see FIGS. 2 and 3). The outlet port 31 leads through the cover 15A to the groove G.

In FIG. 5 fluid enters the chamber 32 through the inlet port 30 and, at the same time, uid leaves the chamber 33 through the outlet port 31; The chamber 34 would be sealed at this time from both the inlet and outlet ports 30 and 31.

In FIG. 6 the case 15 would remain lixed while the pinion gear 17 has advanced in a clockwise direction. This would rotate the planetary gear 19 in an anti-clockwise direction and would move its centre clockwise as indicated. The split ring gear 22 has advanced clockwise and the locus of its centre has moved counterclockwise. The chamber 32 has now increased in volume and a new chamber 35 is beginning as the end 25 of the split ring gear moves away from contact with the internal gears 16 of the case 15. The chamber 33 has decreased in volume as fluid is discharged from the port 31 and the chamber 34 is now connected to the exhaust port 31 and is decreasing in volume as fluid is being discharged.

In FIG. 7 all rotations are the same while the new chamber 35 has increased in volume and is receiving iluid from the inlet port 30 While the chamber 34 has further decreased in volume as fluid is discharged. The chamber 32 has reached its maximum volume and is now sealed from both the inlet and outlet ports as the inner teeth 27 adjacent the ends 24 and 25 of the split ring gear make contact with the teeth 18 on the pinion 17. At this point the chamber 32 is making transition from a function of receiving fluid to that of discharging it and chamber 33 has disappeared since all of the fluid from that chamber has been discharged through the outlet port 31. Y A

In FIG. 8 all rotations of the mechanism are still the same with the chamber 35 further increased in volume and a new chamber 36 beginning and receiving fluid from the outlet port 30. Chamber 32 has now opened to the discharge port 31 and as further rotation of the apparatus takes place the chambers 32 and 34 will decrease in volume and discharge through the discharge port 31.

FIG. 9 now illustrates the mechanism returning to substantially the condition indicated in FIG. 5. Chamber 35 is essentialy the same as the chamber 34 illustrated in FIG. while the new chamber 36 is similar to the other chamber 32 first described. The chamber 32 in FIG. 9 has now assumed the function of the chamber 33 illustrated` in FIG. 5 while the chamber 34 has completely discharged and has now disappeared.

Further operation of the device as shown in FIG. 10 will reveal the operation to be substantially similar to FIG. 6 while the operation of FIG. 11 corresponds to that of FIG. 7, FIG. 12 corresponds to that of FIG. 8 and FIG. 13 again corresponds to both FIGS. 9 and 5. FIG.

14 is then the same in operation as the FIGS. l0 and 6 while FIG. 15 is the same in operation as the FIGS. 11 and 7.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A rotary fluid pressure device comprising an epicyclic gear train consisting of an internally toothed casing with an externally toothed pinion gear. mounted coaxially in the casing to define a chamber between the pinion gear and the casing and a planetary gear in fluid tight intermeshing contact with the casing and the pinion gear, in combination with an externally and internally toothed split ring gear having a segment removed to provide spaced apart ends, such split ring gear positioned in the chamber eccentric to the casing and the pinion and in fluid tight intermeshing contact with the internal teeth on the casing and the external teeth on the pinion gear and with the planetary gear positioned between the spaced apart ends of the split ring gear, means closing the ends of the casing, such means having a fluid tight seal with the casing and the gears therein, an intake port in the casing leading into the chamber on one side of the planetary gear and an outlet port in the casing leading to the chamber on the opposite side of the planetary gear and means to rotate the epicyclic gear train, such means including means to maintain the eccentric relationship of the split ring gear with the pinion gear and casing during rotation of the epicyclic gear train.

2. The rotary fluid pressure device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the intake and outlet ports are in constant communication with the chambers on opposite sides of the planetary gear during rotation of the epicyclic gear train and the split ring gear.

3. The method of converting an epicycle gear train having a single planetary gear into a rotary fluid pressure device which comprises inserting a split ring gear having spaced apart ends in the epicyclic gear train with the single planetary gear between the ends of the split ring gear and with the split ring gear in fluid tight mesh with the gears of the epicyclic gear train other than the single planetary gear and providing ports for inlet and exhaust on opposite sides of the planetary gear.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re.21,374 2/ 1940 Moineau 103--130 1,389,189 8/ 1921 Feuerheerd 123-8 1,682,303 8/1928 Mohl 91-68 1,689,587 10/ 1928 Holmes 91-68 1,968,113 7/1934 Weaver 91-68 2,223,070 11/1940 Kleckner 10S-126 2,680,949 6/ 1954 Butler 230-141 2,871,831 2/1959 Patin 91-56 2,989,951 6/ 1961 Charlson 91-68 3,175,504 3/1965 Molly 103-130 MARK NEWMAN, Primary Examiner. W. J. GOODLIN, Assistant Examiner. 

1.A ROTARY FLUID PRESSURE DEVICE COMPRISING AN EPICYCLIC GEAR TRAIN CONSISTING OF AN INTERNALLY TOOTHED CASING WITH AN EXTERNALLY TOOTHED PINION GEAR MOUNTED COAXIALLY IN THE CASING AND A PLANETARY GEAR IN FLUID TIGHT GEAR AND THE CASING AND A PLANETARY GEAR FLUID TIGH INTERMESHING CONTACT WITH THE CASING AND THE PINION GEAR, IN COMBINATION WITH AN EXTERNALLY AND INTERNALLY TOOTHED SPLIT RING GEAR HAVING A SEGMENT REMOVED TO PROVIDE SPACED APART ENDS, SUCH SPLIT RING GEAR POSITIONED IN THE CHAMBER ECCENTRIC TO THE CASING AND THE PINION AND IN FLUID TIGHT INTERMESHING CONTACT WITH THE INTERNAL TEETH ON THE CASING AND THE EXTERNAL TEETH ON THE PINION GEAR AND WITH THE PLANETARY GEAR POSITIONED BETWEEN THE SPACED APART ENDS OF THE SPLIT RING GEAR, MEANS CLOSING THE ENDS OF THE CASING, SUCH MEANS HAVING A FLUID TIGHT SEAL WITH THE CASING AND THE GEARS THEREIN, AN INTAKE PORT IN THE CASING LEADING INTO THE CHAMBER ON ONE SIDE OF THE PLANETARY GEAR AND AN OUTLET PORT IN THE CASING LEADING TO THE CHAMBER ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE PLANETARY GEAR AND MEANS TO ROTATE THE EPICYCLIC GEAR TRAIN, SUCH MEANS INCLUDING MEANS TO MAINTAIN THE ECCENTRIC RELATIONSHIP OF THE SPLIT RING GEAR WITH THE PINION GEAR AND CASING DURING ROTATION OF THE EPICYCLIC GEAR TRAIN. 